Monday, August 23, 2010

Latest Good Tech News: HP in a Buying Mood

Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 8:48 AM

There's yet more evidence that Silicon Valley is feeling comfortable enough to spend some serious cash to expand. The Mercury News reports that HP, which just calmed rattled investors with some decent second-quarter numbers, is making a surprise bid to snatch Fremont data storage company 3Par from its suitor Dell with a $1.6 billion offer. As turnarounds go, this is something of a double-whammy. First, HP's stock took a serious beating after the whole Mark Hurd scandal, but the latest quarterly report indicates that its profits and revenue are humming along quite nicely, regardless of whom its late CEO may or may not have been diddling. Second, this offer comes on the heels of the Intel/McAfee deal, which is the most prominent evidence that big tech companies that aren't Google are starting to snatch up startups and invest in a more lucrative future. Is Silicon Valley waking up to a rosier future than we're used to seeing?